Table 3-1: Religious Composition of State Populations, 1990 (%). Self-identification of religious loyalty, phone survey w/ 113,000 people; by City U. of New York. [Geographic region in this table is listed as "District of Columbia ", not "Washington, D.C. "]

ARIS: Nationwide phone survey of 50,000 American adults; open-ended question: 'What is your religion, if any?'; Listed in table: "Jehovah's Witness "; Actual % between 0 and 0.5%, so sell was left blank.

Jehovah's Witnesses

world

-

-

-

-

1881

Crim, Keith (ed.). The Perennial Dictionary of World Religions. San Francisco: Harper Collins (1989). Reprint; originally pub. as Abingdon Dictionary of Living Religions, 1981; pg. 377.

In 1879 he started the Watchtower, and in 1881 the Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society. During this period he traveled widely on preaching tours, his sermons were published in numerous newspapers, and his informal following probably numbered millions. Russell preferred organizing only tract societies, with a small army of colporteurs to distribute his literature, and it was only gradually that a denomination emerged. "

"...by 1914 Russell had followers in all the northern European countries, South Africa and in many American cities, and his publications were circulating in central African territories. Disappointed expectations for 1914 caused some to withdraw, and after Russell's death in 1916 the movement reached a low ebb. "

"The most rapidly growing Christian sect during the last three decades has been Jehovah's Witnesses. Voluntary distributors of the movement's publications The Watchtower and Awake! magazines, numbered more than a million in 1966, and in that year nearly two million people attended the sect's annual memorial supper services in Kingdom Halls throughout the world. "

"They grew worldwide from 115,000 in 1942 to 884,000 in 1961 and more than 1.65 million in 1972 (they claim over 5 million today). "

Jehovah's Witnesses

world

1,000,000

-

-

-

1975

Crim, Keith (ed.). The Perennial Dictionary of World Religions. San Francisco: Harper Collins (1989). Reprint; originally pub. as Abingdon Dictionary of Living Religions, 1981; pg. 377-378.

"Jehovah's Witnesses (Christian). A denomination which emphasizes biblical literalism, aggressive evangelism... Under the leadership of the third president, Nathan H. Knorr (1905-1977), there was steady growth, and in the 1970s they claimed some 300,000 U.S. members, and over a million worldwide. "

Bishop, Peter & Michael Darton (editors). The Encyclopedia of World Faiths: An Illustrated Survey of the World's Living Faiths. New York: Facts on File Publications (1987); pg. 149.

"More than 200 countries and island groups are cared for by branch offices of the Watch Tower Society under the direction of their world headquarters in New York... Worldwide the numbers of Jehovah's Witnesses -- all active preachers -- is now approaching three million. "

"The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (JWs). Their Statistics Webpage... Like the LDS they have 1997 figures available, and data from 1988 is scattered about the Web site... Members: 3,500,000 (1988); 5,599,931 (1997); Congregations: 85,256 (1997) "

"Approximately 20 congregations are included in each circuit, and circuits are grouped into districts--41 in the U.S. District and circuit organizations are now found in 210 countries and islands around the world. "

Jehovah's Witnesses

world

3,000,000

-

-

-

1992

Bloom, Harold. The American Religion: The Emergence of the Post-Christian Nation. New York: Simon & Schuster (1992); pg. 160.

"Today there are about three million Witnesses here and throughout the world, at the least, not counting almost as many peripheral adherents. "

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